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good for your health

100 days…seems overwhelming. 100 consecutive days seems impossible. But when you think about it, you brush your teeth everyday, consume your daily coffee/tea/chocolate, watch your obligatory shows, and flip through your 20 minutes of social media. And only some of those things are good for you.

We view practice as a chore, something we are obligated to do because it is good for us, just like brushing our teeth. If you choose not to brush your teeth you will end up with cavities or worse, so for most humans that is enough fear to do your daily deed; if you only brushed once a week, the cavities would still find you. The same idea applies to cello practice: only practicing once in a while only gets you a skill once in a while.

It is harder to see the improvement of playing because it is such a gradual thing. But if you practice even just 15 minutes a day, instead of starting on square 1 of 100 each day you pick up at least 2 squares. So on day 2 you may not have retained all the information you did the day before, you will at least start on square 3, and the next day 5…

For my students that practice 100 consecutive days they receive a medal at our next recital! But really the true prize is enjoying playing and being proud to come to lessons each week. Isn’t giving your student that feeling of accomplishment and confidence worth the occasional “ok, it’s time to practice!.”